2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

Alright. It's time to turn the page on another year for Pro Wrestling. As always, let's start with some predictions.

1.) I predict AJ is gone by year's end. Her relationship with Punk is going to kill her chance of being a Trish/Lita type Diva. Shame because she's awesome.
2.) Bryan will get another run with the title. He's too over not to. Hopefully it's via another Mania main event win but we'll see.
3.) Undertaker wrestles his last match this year. It might not be at Mania (But I think it will) but I think he's done and takes his place in the HOF next year in Texas.
4.) Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens have the feud of the year in NXT but it's cut short because one, or both, of them are brought up in surprise moves on the Raw after Mania.
5.) Adrian Neville fails to gain traction on the main roster and is forgotten in the midcard somewhere by the summer.
6.) This is finally the year Zach Ryder gets released. Shame. He could have been something special.
7.) Ring of Honor continues to be a breeding ground for the WWE and by year's end Adam Cole is in NXT.
8.) John Cena makes no progress once again with his character and refuses to turn heel.
9.) Dolph Ziggler gets a real run with the title by the fall.
10.) Roman Reigns gets a mega push but can't carry it because he is awful on the mic. By the start of 2016, he's set up as the company's new mega face for children and the IWC can't stand him.

-- Bryan wins the Royal Rumble and beats Lesnar at WM.
-- The next night on Raw, in his final WWE appearance, Lesnar lays out Bryan. Paul Heyman waves to the back and out comes the newest "Heyman guy," Seth Rollins, who cashes in MITB and becomes the new champion.
-- All three members of the Shield will hold the WWE title in 2015.
-- Ziggler doesn't win the WWE title but is elevated to challenging for it by year's end. He's next year's Rumble winner.
-- Punk does horribly in MMA.

-- Bryan wins the Royal Rumble and beats Lesnar at WM.
-- The next night on Raw, in his final WWE appearance, Lesnar lays out Bryan. Paul Heyman waves to the back and out comes the newest "Heyman guy," Seth Rollins, who cashes in MITB and becomes the new champion.
-- All three members of the Shield will hold the WWE title in 2015.
-- Ziggler doesn't win the WWE title but is elevated to challenging for it by year's end. He's next year's Rumble winner.
-- Punk does horribly in MMA.

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I like the idea of Rollins cashing in on Bryan the night after Mania but I hope it doesn't lead to him being a Heyman guy. Just like with Punk, Rollins doesn't need the rub. He's great in the ring and great on the mic.
But the possibility of a nice, long drawn-out Bryan vs. Rollins feud could be fun to watch.
Other than that I think your predictions are on point, especially Punk in MMA. His first match will be close and he'll either win or lose by decision (Likely against some cupcake) but he's not going to have Lesnar-type success because, honestly, he's not good enough.
I'm more interested to see if Brock goes back to the UFC and how he does now that his medical issues appear to be gone. If he's been planning a return to the octagon, he could easily be training for it now and be working on his ground game, which was his obvious weak point.

- A good portion of the issue is a “year in review” of the business. WWE and UFC are both dealing with declining attendance. In 2010, WWE had 11 shows that did 15,000+, and UFC had 8. WWE’s numbers fell to 4 in 2013 and 3 in 2014, and UFC hit a high of 12 in 2012, then fell to 4 in 2013 and 3 in 2014. UFC PPV numbers fell from a high of 8.9M in 2010 to a plateau of about 5.4M to 6M the past three years, to 3.8M in 2014, thanks to all of the injuries.

Mania did a $9.8M gate, but no other show broke $1.5M, the criteria for the Top 10 list. Everything else was UFC, which ranged from $1.5M to $6.2M.

- Cena headlined 32 shows with at least 10,000 fans attending, his seventh time and sixth straight year as the industry’s top draw, by that imprecise measure. By rough estimation, he’s the 11th best draw in history, behind Londos, Sammartino, Thesz, Longson, Hogan, Lewis, Rocca, Flair, Rogers and Stecher. (The early century guys had little competition on the cards, and the attendances at open fairgrounds, for example, could be enormous.) Orton is 34th, and Kane and Batista are now in the Top 50 as well.

- Despite the return of Daniel Bryan, right now the plan is still for Reigns to win the title at Mania, although it’s unclear if it’ll be from Lesnar, Rollins or Cena. Lesnar appears less likely as time goes on, since if he’s not signed to a contract extension, they don’t want the crowd to shit on the match like they did Lesnar vs. Goldberg.

- For the New Japan show that’s being presented by Global Force Wrestling – Jarrett’s company – and announced by Jim Ross and Striker, they’re hoping for around 10,000 buys. At that level, they would definitely look to do more foreign PPV broadcast with English language, whether it’s future New Japan shows or AAA for Mexican wrestling. Around 5,000 or less would mean they lost money.

- Speaking of Ross, there is a ton of interest in him to do pro wrestling announcing, except when it comes to WWE. But Lucha Underground and AAA have both reached out to him, and TNA has also done so many times in the past. It’s unclear if Ross has any interest in doing wrestling announcing full-time again.

- Raw dipped to 3.47M viewers this week, one of its lowest numbers of the last 17 years, especially when you consider it had no competition from Monday Night Football. The show was even worse at the start – about 3.1M viewers – and only grew to 3.7M thanks to the much-hyper return of Bryan.

- The Young Bucks were referring to a lowball offer from Lucha Underground on Twitter, not the WWE. It was believed to be a low money, seven year deal that they had no interest in.

- TNA might be done with the PPV business, as they’ve indicated Lockdown will be a taped show. When it comes to talent, it’s believed that Gail Kim, and Edwards and Richards, are on per-date deals. TNA returns on Jan. 7 on Destination America, with their final Spike show airing on Dec. 24ish. For their No. 1 greatest moment in a highlights package, they chose Bully Ray putting Dixie Carter through a table, which isn’t a great sign for the booking going forward.

- Taz starts a podcast on Jan. 7.

- Although it’s likely that Kevin Nash’s arrest, and his son’s, will be dismissed, there was a second family incident on Dec. 27 that led to him cancelling an appearance. No details on that one though.

- Orton has a deviated septum, and needs a few weeks to have the surgery and recover.

Predictions:
-- Cena beats Lesnar after the Undertaker makes an appearance to distract Brock.
-- Bryan starts No. 1 in the Rumble and Ziggler at No. 2. Both go to the end and are part of the final four, along with Reigns and Rollins. Reigns eliminates Ziggler, and is about to be eliminated by Bryan when Rollins throws them both out, winning the Rumble, and boasts that if he doesn't win his Rumble shot at WM, he just may cash it in a second time.
-- Taker and Brock have a rematch at WM, with Taker winning in a relatively short, 6 or 7 minute match. The match won't be a classic, but it'll be better than the previous one with the shortened time.
-- Sting beats Trips at WM in a so-so match that nobody will be upset about because IT'S FUCKING STING!!!
-- Cena beats Rollins at WM as the crowd openly hates him. Rollins beats him down after losing and threatens to cash it in or his second shot, but Reigns comes out to stop him. Rollins cashes it in the next night in front of the raucous crowd and wins.
-- Ziggler and Ambrose serve as the top contenders for Rollins throughout the year, neither winning the belt, until Reigns wins against Rollins at WM 2016.
-- Bryan becomes a part-timer due to concerns over his neck. They have various monsters injure him, with Rusev being the last guy. Cena stands up for his 'little buddy' and becomes the first guy to beat Rusev.
-- Punk gets injured during training and never has a UFC fight. Instead, they use him on commentary, where he becomes a staple.
-- Vince reduces his role on creative more and more as ratings fall and it becomes really apparent that time has passed him by.
-- Zayn will be called up to the main roster, and be used as mid-card filler.
-- Kane will retire
-- The Dudleys will return to the E, and job out to The Ascension.
-- A.J. will leave because the company will job her out because of Punk.
-- Charlotte Flair will join the main roster on a regular basis and will spend most of her time in a pointless tag feud teaming up with Paige against the Bellas.
-- Savage isn't inducted in the Hall, as Leaping Lanny keeps insisting upon the whole family getting in. Instead, it'll be Sting, Ivan Koloff (the only other champ beside Savage and Taker not to be in until the 2000s), the Brooklyn Brawler (for loyalty), Christian (introduced by Edge, naturally), Demolition, with Cindy Lauper as the celebrity.
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I like the idea of Rollins cashing in on Bryan the night after Mania but I hope it doesn't lead to him being a Heyman guy. Just like with Punk, Rollins doesn't need the rub. He's great in the ring and great on the mic.

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True. My original thought was have a Shield triple threat at WM with the stipulation that the winner gets the MITB contract. Then play out the scenario I had but with Reigns instead of Rollins as the new Paul Heyman Guy. Reigns could use Heyman on the mic for him, but I don't think they want to turn him heel.

So I was reading a blog about ways to "turn John Cena heel" because, well, why not and while the blog itself kind of sucked, there was a very intriguing idea by a commenter that I thought was worth sharing here. Thoughts?

"Turning Cena Heel...
…is incredibly simple. There’s a way to do it that’s safe, easy, smarky, and actually interesting.

At Rumble, he beats Lesnar via submission. Except Heyman and Brock both insist he didn’t tap. Moreover, Rollins comes out to cash in, and Trips comes out to stop him.

On Raw, Cena comes out, cuts a "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect, overcome the odds, blah blah blah" promo. The Authority comes out and congratulates him. He shakes hands and is friendly with them – but doesn’t otherwise change his behavior.

Backstage, Rollins demands to know what’s going on from Trips.

"I believe in what’s best for business," Trips says, "And Cena is the face of the company. The fans love him. He moves merchandise. You – well, you pushed him enough that he came around. But, really, Seth, you’re incredibly talented…but you’ll always only be a B+ player. And I’m afraid your services are no longer required by the Authority."

And that’s it – Cena doesn’t ever appear in the ring with the Authority after that (after all, it’s about selling his image, and being associated with Trips isn’t "best for business"), but sometimes will be backstage talking sales stats or something with Steph or Trips. Rollins is now unprotected from all the enemies he made. Run an announcer storyline where Cole gets replaced when he refuses to repeat what’s being fed into his earpiece about Cena being a great guy. Cena gets quietly protected, gets to pick his opponents, etc. But he keeps acting like a face…or as much like a face as he does now.

And after Rollins keeps fighting and losing, now with a target on his back from the Authority, but still with the MITBbriefcase (which he manages to hold on to by hook or by crook), at the final RAW before the next MITB – his last chance to cash in – Cena has a "title match" against Adam Rose or local talent because he’s a fighting champ. After the quick victory, Rollins appears on the Titantron – he can’t beat the Authority alone. He knows that. But he’s also learned other things – like sometimes you have to admit when you were wrong and just say you were sorry.

Speakers crackle: SIERRA HOTEL INDIGO…

Crowd entrance, Rollins cashes in. Dean and Reigns stop any interference. And a week out from the pay-per-view, the Authority is left scrambling to get in a fix at MiTB."

Crowd would be rather confused. If he's still acting like normal Cena, why would the fans who,like him turn on him? They might just end up cheering the Authority, especially if Cole gets fired.

I'd rather see Cena try to do a Bret Hart attempt at a turn. Come out, say that he will still be willing to sign autographs for the kids because he believes in being loyal to his most innocent fans. But that he will no longer try to be a role model for their parents, who keep on booing him, and that he will go after the adults' favorites.

Either that, or he could be a smarmy, snotty heel with an oversized ego.